Computers can become more powerful by adopting traits of the human brain

By adopting some of the characteristics of the human brain, computers have the potential to become far more compact, efficient, and powerful, writes Bruno Michel

Ever since US computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term “Artificial Intelligence” in 1955, the public has imagined a future of sentient computers and robots that think and act like humans. But while such a future may indeed arrive, it remains, for the moment, a distant prospect.

And yet the foreseeable frontier of computing is no less exciting. We have entered what IBM calls the Cognitive Era. Breakthroughs in computing are enhancing our ability to make sense of large bodies of data, providing guidance in some of the world’s most important decisions, and potentially revolutionising entire industries.